State of the Union Reaction

Democrats in the region like the jobs plan President Obama laid out last evening in his State of the Union address. But Republicans are wary of its price tag.

The president is calling for a lot of investments that could affect Virginia, including transportation, first responders and the state's growing high tech industry. Virginia Democrat Bobby Scott says it’s a plan that will put the economy back on track because it isn’t focused solely on cutting the federal budget like the scheduled sequestration would do.

“What he said is we have to get through the sequester but we can’t achieve economic prosperity by cutting investments in our future. It has to be a comprehensive approach. Not just cutting. So he has an excellent vision of how we can get through this sequester," said Scott.

But Republicans are dubious about what they heard. With the nation $16 trillion in debt, Virginia Republican Morgan Griffith is asking how the president plans to pay for his jobs package. “I did hear a lot of spending programs, and in all fairness I don’t know how he’s going to pay for those without either taxing the middle class or cutting spending. He said he didn’t want to do either of those, so it will be interesting to see how he proposes to pay for those things that he wants to do.”

Before the president can move on to his jobs agenda he’ll have to work with House Republicans on a fiscal deal …or else billions of dollars will be indiscriminately slashed from the budget in March.